Circuit-controlling apparatus.



' To all 'whom t4 may concern:

sTATEs PATENT oFF-ICE.

WALTER C. REED, 0F DALTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR T0 THE TELEJECTRICCOM- PANY, OF PITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION 0F MASSACHUSETTS.

CIRCUIT-CONTROLLING APPARATUS.

Be it known that I, WALTER C. REED, a citizen of "the United States,residin at Dalton, in the county of Berkshire and tate of Massachusetts,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Circuit-ControllingApparatus, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to provide a circuit-controllingapparatus by means of which any desired number of secondary electriccircuits may be completely controlled, that is to say, opened or closedeither one at a time or more than oneYV at a time `and left open orclosed as long as may slots for taking the various appliances ofl".-

When such expression appliances are operated by a circuit control erembodying my invention, the putting on of lone or more of the appliancesresults also in automatically taking off .the others, so that it 1spossible to completely control all the appliances by providing the musicwith one serles of speclal slots for each appliance, without ad ditionaltake-olf slots.

My apparatus may be readily adaptedto control any desired number ofsecondary circuits, but as the invention will be sufficiently explained-by describing the apparatus as designed for controlling tw'o suchcircuits only I have illustrated such-an apparatus 1n the accompanyingdrawing, in which the ligure is a diagrammatic view' showing the partsem loyedl and their ope ating circuits.

he apparatus shown 1n the drawm com- .A prises two circuit closers A andB of identi'- cal construction, one for each circuit to becontrolled,and,a circuit opener C. Each of the circuit closers, aspreferably constructed, includes a double-Wound magnet 2 havlng twoarmatures 3 and 4 which are simultaneously attracted by the magnet whenener- Specication of Letters Patent.

'gized and automatically move "away from piece at the top of the magnetwhen energized. The armature 9 has a greater mag- Patented Jan. 7,1919.l Application led November 23, 1916. Serial No. 132,992.

netic mass than the armature 8 and is therel fore attracted with greaterforce, and at its upper end it carries a striker which extends laterallytoward the upper end of the armature 8 and is normally separated fromthe latter by a distance slightly less than the distance between theattracting pole of the magnet andthe armature 9. Said armatures arenormally held away from the attracting pole of the magnet, by springaction, with the upper end of the armature 8 in contact with` ametallicB contact piece 10 and the upper end ofthe armature 9 restingagainst a fixed stop 11. rlhe coils with which the magnet 7 is wound areequal in number to the circuit closers above described, the two coilsemployed in the present ease being indicated at 12 and 13. i

14 indicates a metallic contact bar and 15' and 16 .indicate a pair ofcircuit-controlling lingers which are'movable into and out of contactwith the bar 14 and may be assumed to be controlled b a perforated musicsheet (not shown). T e contact bar 14 is connected by a circuit 'Wire 17to one pole 18 of asuitable source of electric current, such as agenerator 19, and from the fingers 15 and 16 wires 20 and 21 lead to theexciting coils 5 of the circuit closers A and B respectively, thecircuits through said coils.being completed by way of wires 22 andcommon return circuitwires 23 and '24 leading to the other pole 25 ofthe generator. Branch circuit wlres '26 and 27 lead respectively fromthe circuit wires 20 and 21 to the coils 12` and 13of the magnet 7, thereturn circuit for these coils bein provided by wires 28 and 29connected to t e return wire 24.

Another metallic contact bar 3() is located in position to make contactwith the several loo armatures 3 and 4 when attracted, and is connectedby a circuit wire 31 to the pole 18 of the generator, so that it has thesame polarity as the 'contact bar 14 and is adapted to supply current tothe armatures 3 and 4 when -in contact' therewith. Each of the armatures3 is connected by a circuit wire 32 to the coil 6 of the correspondingcircuitcloser, and from these coils the return circuit extends throughwires 33 to a common return wire 34 which leads to the armature 8 of thecircuit opener C. When the latter armature is in Contact with thecontact piece 10 the return circuit from the coils 6 is completed by wayof a wire 35 connecting said Contact plece withI the pole 25 of thegenerator.

Each of the armatures 4 when in contact with the bar 30 transmitscurrent to a corf -respondingexpression appliance through an operatingcircuit which is represented in part by the wlre 36. No speciicexpression appllances are illustrated, as their construction is notmaterial to the present invention,

As thus constructed the operation is asA follows: Whenever either of theingers 15 and 1G is permitted to make contact with the bar 14, currentis transmitted through the exciting coil 5 of the corresponding magnet 2and also through one of the coils of the magnet 7, which results insimultaneously attracting bot-h armatures of the circuit closer and botharn'latures of the circuit opener. Consequently the return circuitthrough both of the retaining coils 6 is opened by the movement of thearmature 8 away from the Contact piece 10 but is immediately closedagain by the action of the armature 9, the striker on which engages andoverpowers the armature 8 and moves it into contact with the piece 10,where it is held so long as the magnet 7 remains energized, the slotwhich permits the closing of the primary circuit through the iinger 15or 16 being made long enough to provide for the restoration of thecontact of the parts 8 and 10 as above described. While this contact isbe ing broken and restored the armatures 3 and 4 of the energizedcircuit closer are drawn into contact with the bar 30, with the resultthat the secondary or operatingv circuit through the corresponding wire36 is closed by the armature 4 and the expression appliance operatedthereby is put on. the armature 3 closes the circuit through theretaining coil 6 at the cont-act bar 30, and since this circuit is alsoclosed by the armature 8 before the exciting coil 5 is dener- 'gized theretaining coil remains energized after the finger 15 or 16 has beenmoved out of Contact with the bar 14, so that the At the same 'time .ofits armatures 3 and 4 move aw-ay'from the bar 30, if they werepreviously in contact therewith, and the corresponding expressionappliance is thereby taken off by the opening of the circuit through thewire 36. In other words, the closing of either primary circuit throughits contact finger 15 or 16 results in closing the correspondingsecondary circuit and thereby putting on the expression applianceoperated thereby, and also results in simultaneously taking off theother expression appliance. When both primary circuits are Closed at thesame time, both expression appliances go onand remain on until one orthe other of the primary circuits is again closed, whereupon thecorresponding expression `appliance remains on and the other goes oli.

lAll of the expression appliances will ob- Y viously go offautomatically when the cur rent is cut off from the playing apparatus,and if it is desired to take OIE all the expression appliances While theapparatus is playing this may be done by opening the return circuit ofthe retaining coils 6 1n any suitable manner, or by providing the musicsheet with a slot adapted to operate either of the lingers 15 and 16 andcut so short that it will terminate before the circuit which is brokenby the attraction of the armature 8 is closed again by the action of thearmature 9, since in such case the current sent through either of theexciting coils 5 will be broken while the return current through thecorresponding retaining coil isl also open. When the apparatus is usedfor operating the stops of a pipe organ, however, it will not be necessary to' open at the' same time all the circuits represented by thewires 36, since the 'organ will not play unless one or more of the stopsare on.-

The circuit opening and closing devices employed in the apparatus may beconstructd ed in various ways without departing from my invention, solon as they are adapted to operate as above exp ained. The devicesindicated at A and B are not individually claimed herein, as they formthe subject matter of .my Patent No. 1,243,221, granted October 16,1917, in which their construction is described in detail. Also thedevice indicated at C is not individually claimed herein, as it formsthe subject matter of my copending application Serial No. 127,571, filedOctober 25, 1916. l

I claim:

1. A circuit-controlling apparatus comprising a plurality lof primarycircuits provided With means for opening and closing them independentlyof one another and each including an electro-magnet having an excitingcoil 'and a retaining coil, means op erated by each magnet Whenenergized for closing the circuit through its" retaining coil and alsoclosing a ysecondary circuit, -and means operative With the closing ofany one of the primary circuits for momentarily opening the circuitthrough all the retaining co s.

2. A circuit-controllin apparatus comprising a plurality of clrcuitclosers each including an electro-magnet provided with an exciting coiland a retaining coil, the exciting coils being severally included inprimary circuits having 4 ently opening vand closin them and thesecondary coils being inclu ed in circuits having a common portion,means operated by each magnet When energized for closing the circuitthrough its retaining coil and also closing a secondary circuit, and acircuit opener including an electro-magnet Wound with a plurality ofcoils, each connected in circuit with the exciting coil of one of thecircuit-closer magnets, and provided with means for independ.

means for momentarily opening the common portion of the retaining-coilcircuit.

3. A circuit-controlling apparatus com'- exciting coil and a retainingcoil and having an armature arranged to close a normally-open secondarycircuit and another armature arranged to close the circuit through theretaining coil when the magnet is energized by the exciting coil, meansfor momentarily closing the circuits through the exciting coils of saidcircuit closers independently of one another, a circuit opener includingan electro-magnet Wound With a plurality of coils each connected incircuit with the 'exciting coil of one of the circuitcloser magnets, thecircuit-opener magnet being provided with two armatures of which one issubject to a greater attractive force than the other, means operated bythe attraction of the latter armature for opening the circuit'throughthe retaining coils of all the circuit closers, and means operated bythe other armature for moving the less-powerful armature into positionto close the lastmentioned circuit.

Signed at Boston,l Mass., this seventeenth day of November, 1916.

p WALTER C. REED.

i prising 'a plurality of circuit closers each including anelectro-magnet provided with an

